Sankuru Nature Reserve

Central Africa > Democratic Republic of the Congo > Sankuru Nature Reserve

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Summary

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• Bonobos (Pan paniscus) are present in Sankuru Nature Reserve.
• The population size is unknown.
• The population trend is unknown.
• The site has a total size of 30,570 km².
• Key threats to bonobos are logging and wood harvesting.
• Conservation activities have focused on the implementation of a REDD+ project.

Site characteristics

The Sankuru Nature Reserve is located in central Democratic Republic of Congo. The diversity of wildlife in Sankuru is remarkable; in addition to the bonobo, other species of conservation concern found at the site include the okapi (Okapia johnstoni), and at least 10 other species of primates, including the rare owl faced monkey and blue monkey. Sankuru also contains elephants, which have been hunted out in many other areas of the Congo forest (BCI).

Table 1. Basic site information for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Species	Pan paniscus
Area	30,570 km²
Coordinates	Lat: -2.675223 , Lon: 24.334955
Type of site	Protected area (Nature Reserve)
Habitat types	Subtropical/tropical moist lowland forest, Subtropical/tropical swamp forest
Type of governance

Types of sites Governance types Habitat types

Ape status

Table 2. Ape population estimates reported for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Species	Year	Occurrence	Encounter or vistation rate (nests/km; ind/day)	Density estimate [ind./ km²] (95% CI)	Abundance estimate (95% CI)	Survey area	Sampling method	Analytical framework	Source	Comments	A.P.E.S. database ID
Pan paniscus						Sankuru Nature Reserve

Sampling methods Analytical frameworks

Threats

Table 3. Threats to apes reported for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Category	Specific threats	Threat level	Description	Year of threat
5 Biological resource use	5.3 Logging & wood harvesting	Present (unknown severity)	Forest loss in the region (Global Forest Watch).	Ongoing (2023)

Threats

Conservation activities

Table 4. Conservation activities reported for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Category	Specific activity	Description	Implementing organization(s)	Year of activity
7 Economic & other incentives	7.1 Provide monetary benefits to local communities for sustainably managing their forest and its wildlife (e.g., REDD, alternative income, employment)	Sankuru is the recipient of the first REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) contract in the DRC, indicating its vital role in pioneering a new paradigm for community-led conservation. In addition to combating climate change, the REDD+ aims to protect ecosystem diversity and helps to ensure the livelihoods and welfare of the local people (BCI).		Unknown

Conservation activities

Challenges

Table 5. Challenges reported for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Challenges	Specific challenges	Source	Year(s)
	Not reported

Challenges

Enablers

Table 6. Enablers reported for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Enablers	Specific enablers	Source	Year(s)
1 Site management
2 Resources and capacity
3 Engaged community
4 Institutional support
5 Ecological context
6 Safety and stability

Enablers

Documented behaviours

Table 7. Behaviours documented for Sankuru Nature Reserve

Category	Behavior	Observation type	Prevalence	Observation dates	Source	Habituation	Species	Comment
	Not reported

Behaviours

Exposure to climate change impacts

As part of a study on the exposure of African great ape sites to climate change impacts, Kiribou et al. subm. extracted climate data and data on projected extreme climate impact events for the site. Climatological characteristics were derived from observation-based climate data provided by the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP, www.isimip.org). Parameters were calculated as the average across each 30-year period. For 1981-2010, the EWEMBI dataset from ISIMIP2a was used. For the two future periods (2021-2050 and 2071-2099) ISIMIP2b climate data based on four CMIP5 global climate models were used. For future projections, two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) were used. RCP 2.6 is a scenario with strong mitigation measures in which global temperatures would likely rise below 2C. RCP 6.0 is a scenario with medium emissions in which global temperatures would likely rise up to 3C by 2100. For the number of days with heavy precipitation events, the 98th percentile of all precipitation days (>1mm/d) was calculated for the 1979-2013 reference period as a threshold for a heavy precipitation event. Then, for each year, the number of days above that threshold was derived. The figures on temperature and precipitation anomaly show the deviation from the mean temperature and mean precipitation for the 1979-2013 reference period.

The estimated exposure to future extreme climate impact events (crop failure, drought, river flood, wildfire, tropical cyclone, and heatwave) is based on a published dataset by Lange et al. 2020 derived from ISIMIP2b data. The same global climate models and RCPs as described above were used. Within each 30-year period, the number of years with an extreme event and the average proportion of the site affected were calculated (see Kiribou et al. subm. for details).

Table 8. Estimated past and projected climatological characteristics in Sankuru Nature Reserve

Value	1981-2010	2021-2050, RCP 2.6	2021-2050, RCP 6.0	2071-2099, RCP 2.6	2071-2099, RCP 6.0
Mean temperature [C]	24.6	25.8	25.7	26.1	27.1
Annual precipitation [mm]	1750	1717	1743	1736	1779
Max no. consecutive dry days (per year)	12.2	21.1	20.7	24.8	19.6
No. days with heavy precipitation (per year)	6.7	10.1	10	10.8	12.1

Table 9. Projected exposure of apes to extreme climate impact events in Sankuru Nature Reserve

Type	No. of years with event (2021-2050, RCP 2.6)	% of site exposed (2021-2050, RCP 2.6)	No. of years with event (2021-2050, RCP 6.0)	% of site exposed (2021-2050, RCP 6.0)	No. of years with event (2070-2099, RCP 2.6)	% of site exposed (2070-2099, RCP 2.6)	No. of years with event (2070-2099, RCP 6.0)	% of site exposed (2070-2099, RCP 6.0)
Crop failure	13	0.06	11	0.01	11.5	0.04	26.5	0.04
Drought	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Heatwave	7	40.18	5.5	23.33	7.5	56.77	18.5	46.35
River flood	4.75	0.06	3	0.22	4	0.17	5	0.45
Tropical cyclone	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wildfire	30	0.72	30	0.7	29	0.8	29	0.64

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  Precipitation anomaly in Sankuru Nature Reserve

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  Temperature anomaly in Sankuru Nature Reserve

References

Page created by: APES Atlas Team Date: 2023-02-27